Large Financial Institution Protects Data with BlueXP Backup

With highly sensitive data and stringent regulatory data policies to contend with, financial institutions are facing constraints from multiple angles when it comes to storing and backing up data. For this reason, financial institutions need to be selective when it comes to choosing backup, storage, and ransomware recovery solutions that fit their requirements.

This is the story of one of the largest US-based financial institutions that transformed its data protection approach by adopting NetApp BlueXP backup and recovery.

It’s a use case that speaks to the entire industry: BlueXP backup and recovery provides the capabilities to back up and store highly-sensitive data at scale and support the demands for compliant data storage that are essential for financial institutions.

Read on to find out more, or use the link below to jump down to the sections on:

• Backup Storage Challenges Facing Financial Institutions
• Customer Case Study: Protecting Sensitive Financial Data at a Major Financial Institution
• Conclusion: Financial Companies Can Protect ONTAP Data Better with BlueXP

Backup Storage Challenges Facing Financial Institutions

When it comes to data backup, financial institutions have some of the most strict data security requirements to contend with. Financial data is extremely sensitive and highly regulated. For this reason, financial institutions need to take extra care to ensure that their data backup systems are robust, reliable, and that data can be recovered quickly and easily in the event of an outage, disaster, or cyber-attack.

There are different options available for financial institutions when it comes to data backup. They can choose to back up their data on-premises, to a remote location, to the cloud, or some hybrid combination of those options. Each option has its own advantages and disadvantages, so it's important to select the one that best meets the needs of the institution.

When selecting a backup solution for highly sensitive data, financial institutions have a number of considerations to take into account, such as:

• The solution can handle their large data sets
• The data is stored securely, and only authorized personnel can access it
• The data is backed up at a remote location for a disaster case
• A backup solution that offers quick and easy restore options
• The backup data and solution remain compliant with existing regulations
• The backup data solution fits with the organization’s backup strategy from initial data capture to final data storage
• Data is protected from cyber-attacks as well as physical ones

Customer Case Study: Protecting Sensitive Financial Data at a Major Financial Institution

As one of the largest companies in the world, this financial institution had a vast amount of data to protect, all while remaining within strict security requirements and regulations. In order to comply with US Federal Reserve guidelines, the company needed to store data copies that are indelible and immutable, using the write once, read many (WORM) format.

The company’s ONTAP systems could create WORM storage volumes via NetApp SnapLock® technology. However, it became a challenge to back up those volumes while preserving the data WORM format in the destination backup storage. BlueXP backup and recovery offered a way to do that using StorageGRID®.

There were a few key selling points that made NetApp BlueXP backup and recovery the right choice for this financial institution:

• Scale: The company started with 2 PB initially to protect ONTAP on-premises to StorageGRID, while expecting to increase the size of the data set
• Native NetApp solution: With an existing ONTAP data storage system in place, using BlueXP and StorageGRID offered a fully-NetApp backup solution. This all-NetApp solution allows for seamless interoperability and more security than leveraging a third-party vendor technology to back up the ONTAP data.
• Backup WORM source data: The enterprise needed to back up its WORM data. Through BlueXP’s interoperability with SnapLock, the company has the ability to back up WORM volumes that are hosted on ONTAP.
• WORM data at destination: In addition to getting WORM copies at the source with SnapLock, the enterprise was also able to get WORM at the object storage destination through BlueXP backup and recovery’s integration with DataLock, relying on the StorageGRID S3 object lock feature.
• Ransomware protection: BlueXP backup and recovery’s ransomware protection benefits were also a selling point for this financial enterprise, notably the ransomware protection feature. With this feature, BlueXP backup and recovery scans the backup copy, ensuring its integrity. If any attempt to change WORM backup data is detected, a series of alerts are sent, and the latest good copy of the data becomes the new source of truth.
• A single control plane with BlueXP: BlueXP provided the company with a single control plane and visibility into its entire data estate.
• Fully dark site deployment: BlueXP’s dark site deployment option helped this enterprise make use of this service in a network that is completely disconnected from the internet, adding an extra layer of protection for sensitive data. The dark site deployment allowed the company to adhere to strict regulatory security requirements while still maintaining the opportunity to back data up to the cloud, should that ever become an option.

Conclusion: Financial Companies Can Protect ONTAP Data Better with BlueXP

This US-based financial institution turned to NetApp for a solution to protect its sensitive data while still adhering to regulatory guidelines. What they found was a robust data protection solution that made it easier, safer, and less expensive to store critical backup data.

This use case of an all-NetApp solution combining BlueXP backup and recovery with SnapLock, DataLock, and ransomware protection provides a roadmap for other financial institutions that also face the challenge of complying with data handling requirements.

Learn more about how BlueXP backup and recovery can help your enterprise optimize the backup and storage of your data while meeting your compliance standards.